


Cold Snap

by LittleKnownArtist



Category: Kyoukai no Rinne | Rin-ne
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 18:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20430479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleKnownArtist/pseuds/LittleKnownArtist
Summary: A cold day in Tokyo. Sakura knows times like this must be miserable for Rokudo. She decides to help make him a little more comfortable.





	Cold Snap

Sakura shivered. This November was an extremely harsh one, it was not even the middle of the month and it was already 5°C for the majority of the day. What was worse, they were predicting it would get down to -5°C tonight. Walking home with bare legs was not fun. She loved her school uniform but this was ridiculous. She wished she had listened to her mom when she was told to bring pants for the walk home.

As soon as she turned the corner onto her street, she started at a full run towards her house. She pounced on her front porch past her gate and removed her string of key chains from her book bag. She unlocked the door and walked inside swiftly shutting the door behind her, as to not let the cold into her mudroom. She shivered briefly then allowed herself to enjoy the warmth of her home. She jingled her keychain loving the new addition her dad had gotten her for a perfect score on her math test. It was a tiny teddy bear shape with a little Santa hat. Her mom had no doubt advised her dad on this one. It was so cute. She had a weakness for cute things.

"Mom! I'm home!" Sakura shouted removing her shoes and placing them neatly on the rack.

"I'm in the kitchen honey." Her mother called back.

As for what she was doing, Sakura could already tell as she walked into the main room. The scent of chocolate, cinnamon, and pure sweetness assaulted her nose. She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of another of her mom's attempts at trying to stave off the thought of aging. Sakura guessed it was the only to keep her mind off it.

Sakura walked into the kitchen only to be attacked by her mother holding a tray of cookies in her face.

"Okay now, try the cinnamon Sakura," her mother said over excitedly.

"Jeez mom, you startled me."

She grabbed a cinnamon cookie off the plate and munched on it. "It's good mom, thankyou."

"You should finish off that tray, I've got more in the oven," her mom said plopping the warm tray into her daughter's hands. She turned around and went to staring at the timer.

Sakura laughed. "You're going to make me fat mom." She smiled, and her mom returned the smile.

"You don't have to worry much about that, Sakura-chan. You're so thin and at your age-" Sakura rolled her hazel eyes at her mom's mention of age, which seemed to be all she thought about as she approached 40- "if you don't eat those I certainly will and I will be then one with the extra weight," her mom said lightheartedly.

Sakura did grab another cookie-her mom's baked treats were addictive after all, but she still stayed cautious, she had made herself sick on these cookies a few weeks ago. She looked around the room and noticed something missing.

"Where's dad?" Sakura knew he always came home early on Tuesdays.

"Oh that's right!" He mom exclaimed in realization.

She tapped her index finger to her chin. "Sorry Sakura, he has to stay after at the bank."

Sakura tilted her head to the side. "Why?"

"Chiho had her baby today, so he has to cover for her until closing."

"Today? I thought she had a month to go. Is she alright?" Sakura was concerned about this woman she had only heard about through her parents.

"So did she. She's fine, it's a little boy. From what I heard he's a bit early, but he's healthy."

"That's good to know." Sakura smiled.

She looked over at the countertop finally noticing the obscene number of trays with cookies piled on top of them. Why mom, why? She thought to herself.

She walked up the stairs to her room book bag in hand and flopped on her bed. She contemplated not doing her homework for a moment, but then decided against it. She sighed and sat up pulling out the extra math book that made her bag so heavy. Normally she finished her work in class, but the students rambling about the (distant and unlikely) prospect of snow kept her distracted.

She sat at her desk and pulled out her notebook and began doing the calculations. She didn't use her calculator but twice, and after ten minutes moved onto history and writing.

An hour or so later she had her concentration broken by the howling of the wind. She scribbled down the last line of her homework and closed her book. The wind was awful at times. She sat on her bed and picked up her not-so-cute dolphin. She looked at the bug-eyed stuffed animal and remembered who had won it for her in the toy grab.

She felt terrible suddenly. "I wonder how Rokudo-kun is handling this weather," she asked herself.

She quietly walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mother had just pulled out another tray of cookies.

"Mom? Do we…have any extra blankets?"

"Hm? Of course Sakura, in the hall closet. Why? Are you cold? I could turn up the heat in your room…"

Sakura shook her head. "No mom, it's just… a friend of mine doesn't have a very good heater in their house." or any heater "Do you mind if I make a run over there?"

"Which friend?"

"Rokudo-kun." She had warned her mom before, in an understated way, of Rokudo's economic situation.

"No, I don't mind at all, but it's getting a bit dark, so text me when you get there" Sakura loved how cool her mom was about everything. She always got to do what she wanted. Though that was mostly because she never gave her parents a reason to worry. She was a good kid.

She got herself bundled up, grabbed her wind-up lantern, four fleece blankets, a container of warm cookies and headed out the door. She made her way to the club building in record time-even with her hands completely full-knocking slightly before barging into Rokudo's room.

She turned on her lantern because of how dark it was in the room, and there all that could be seen sticking out of Rokudo's haori was a shivering pile of newspaper and some bright red hair.

"R-Rokudo-kun?"

"Hm?" Rokudo looked over the edge of the haori to see a worried Sakura standing in front of his closed door.

"S-S-Sakura Mamiya?" he said shivering.

"Oh good, I figured you would be cold tonight so I brought you some blankets. And my mom's been making cookies all day so I brought a bunch of those too." She smiled slightly and handed the blankets to him and sat across from him, setting her lantern on his table. She noticed then that he was not saying anything, he was simply staring at the blankets he had been handed.

"Are you alright?" she asked and knit her brows in confusion.

He nodded. "I-I just… thankyou Sakura Mamiya."

"Well cover up," she shrugged at him.

He unfolded the blankets and wrapped them around himself, which disturbed a certain black cat, who crawled out from under the newspaper, and glanced lazily at Sakura.

"Hi Sakura-sama." He looked at Rokudo wrapped in the blankets. "Did you bring those over?" And without caring about a response he sleepily crawled over Rokudo's leg and under the blankets mumbling about what a nice person Sakura was.

This made Sakura chuckle. 'What a cute cat' she thought.

. . .

Rinne smiled a bit. Sakura had such a cute laugh. 'I just wish could hear that more often' Rinne thought, but quickly vanquished it when he felt an uncomfortable heat come to his otherwise cold face. He looked at the tatami mat in front of him before a large container was slid across the mat to him.

"They're still warm."

Rinne looked up at the girl across from him. Scarlet eyes briefly looked over hazel. The girl who owned them wore the slightest of smiles, but it was enough for him to want to direct his attention elsewhere. 'She's really great to her friends isn't she?' That was it. He was her classmate, nothing but that. She was concerned about his well being because she was just good to all of her friends…Right?

He immediately grabbed for the container of cookies pulling off the lid and grabbing one from the selection. Chocolate chip, one of his favorites. He munched contentedly on the cookie. A quiet beeping sound caught his attention. He glanced up to see that Sakura was just texting someone.

"My mom," she stated casually, then closed her phone.

He started slightly. Her peripheral vision must be great; his head was not even turned towards her, just his eyes. 'Yeah, my bright red eyes.' he thought, red does catch people's attention.

"I wasn't asking," he stated, overly blunt.

She knit her brows slightly. He mentally kicked himself for that, but did not allow it to show on his face. His bluntness was often a defense mechanism, used whenever he felt uncomfortable or was, in this, case startled.

"I just meant shouldn't you be going home soon?" Again he realized, all too late, how rude his tone was.

"What? I just got here. It is a bit colder outside. I don't want to go walking in that just yet." She lifted her brow.

"Sorry, I-uh…just thought your parents might worry a bit," he stated trying to save himself from utter embarrassment. Even he had forgotton about the spirit way

"Oh." she touched her index finger to her chin and looked above her. "They don't worry too much."

'Who can have such worry free parents?' Rinne thought. 'Don't they know it's dangerous for a young girl to walk around alone in the dark?' he immediately thought about all the danger he had put her in when dealing with ghosts, evil spirits and devils… 'Crap…she has a better chance on the streets…'

"Hey Rokudo-kun, did you finish all your homework?" Sakura asked suddenly.

"Hm? Uh… no, I didn't really get what we were doing in writing period, but I got everything else done," he always became frustrated with writing. He was much better at math. (He was always, unfortunately, calculating debts.)

"Really? That was easy for me. I can help you if you want," Sakura smiled. Rinne had always noticed her getting the best grades in writing. Top of the class in that area really.

"Um, okay…"

Rinne got some help with his homework, and afterwards enjoyed cookies and talking with Sakura. They talked about how ridiculously cold it was that November, Mrs. Mamiya's new overzealous baking hobby, random things from school, and of course the topic of ghosts popped up a few times.

Rinne did not know how it happened but he had fallen asleep. He was awoken by a beeping sound. He stirred and realized it was Sakura's phone indicating she had gotten a text. He noticed that she, too, had fallen asleep. She was still perched up against the wall with her knees pulled up close to her body. She had likely been trying to keep warm in his freezing room. He was warm under all the blankets Sakura had let him borrow. And she was just in her winter coat and sweatpants.

"Sakura Mamiya, you should get home soon."

She did not stir.

"Mamiya?"

He pushed the blankets off of his body, shivering as the cold air hit him. He got closer to Sakura. He could hear her calm even breathing. She looked so peaceful while she slept. Her bangs framed her sleeping face beautifully, and her long dark eyelashes looked so gracefully placed against her cheek. He shook her shoulder. She whimpered slightly in her sleep, but remained otherwise the same.

Rinne sighed. He had never taken Sakura for a heavy sleeper, then again, he had only seen her asleep once, and at that point she was just barely asleep. He grabbed his haori and put it on. He set the empty container of cookies on her lap and picked her up careful not to drop the plastic container. He had picked her up plenty of times, but he noticed this time how light she was. Even in her winter gear she was easy to lift into his arms. She felt almost fragile. It was obvious that she was a great deal smaller than himself, she had mentioned once that she was 158 centimeters while he had grown quite a bit taller in the past six months. She never mentioned her weight, frankly girls never did.

He remembered what he was doing and made his was to Sakura's house via the spirit way.

He was not comfortable when he got there; Sakura's parents were walking about the house in a nervous sort of way, wondering why their only child had not answered their texts. He quickly set her on the bed, pulling her covers over her, boots and all, and made a noise on the door. Sakura's dad was on the second floor and heard this and quickly opened her door. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw his daughter snoozing soundly on her bed. "I guess I just didn't see her come in," he muttered to himself. He shut the door with a quiet click.

Rinne, who could not be seen, sighed also. It didn't look like she would be in any trouble in the morning. He walked over to her window, taking one last, long look at the sleeping girl. He watched her breathe comfortably, and left on his way.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this when I was 16, so don't judge too harshly. I've not edited it since then.


End file.
